Tampa Tennis Earns Bid to SSC Tournament
MELBOURNE, Fla. - The University of Tampa tennis team will play in the 2019 Sunshine State Conference Women's Tennis Tournament, which begins on Friday, April 26. UT is a six-seed as eight teams will battle in quarterfinal action. All tournament matches will be hosted by Nova Southeastern University at IMG Academy in Bradenton.
League tournament winners eight of the last nine years, Barry University is awarded the #1 seed in this year's event. The Buccaneers draw #8 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Lynn University is seeded #2 in the 2019 championship and will take on #7 Rollins College. Rounding out this year's quarterfinal matches is #3 Saint Leo University against #6 University of Tampa and #4 Nova Southeastern University against #5 Florida Southern College.
The Spartans enter the postseason with an overall record of 12-7 after going 4-6 in SSC play. The Spartans are winners of two of their last three, including wins over nationally-ranked opponents Palm Beach Atlantic and Rollins.
All quarterfinal matches will be played at 3:30 PM on Friday, April 26th, while the semifinals will take place at 2:00 PM on Saturday, April 27th. The championship and third-place matches are slated to start at 1:00 PM on Sunday, April 28th.
For the third week in a row, Lynn remains the No. 1 team in the country according to the ITA national poll. Barry and Saint Leo continue to earn Top-5 ranking, this week the Buccaneers and Lions rank No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Nova Southeastern stays in the Top-10 at No. 7, while Florida Southern rounds out the SSC's Top-25 ranked teams at No. 18.
Barry leads the SSC with four women's tennis national championships, including back-to-back titles in 2017 & 2018. Lynn is second in the SSC with three trophies, the last coming in 2001. The first women's tennis national championship won by an SSC institution belongs to former member the University of North Florida which took home the 1994 national title.